Financial Wellness

• Rather than focusing on life events, banks are now basing their products and marketing on everyday financial decisions, getting into the financial wellness business. (The Financial Brand)
• Is your credit card debt making you sick? A detailed study by CarefulCents.com finds the answer if “yes.” (PRNewswire)

Economics/ Crypto-Currency

• Here is an article from The Economist that discusses the demise of cash across the world’s economies. (For more detail on the topic, check out Digging Deeper: What the Heck are Digital Dollars?)
  

Investing

• A very clever discussion of traditional portfolio theory, written as a “Eulogy for the 60/40 portfolio.” A Wealth of Common Sense
  

Student Loans

• The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has issued new data on student loan data, analyzed in a multitude of ways. Bottom line, debt is at 5 times the 2003 level. (Liberty Street Economics Blog)

Budgeting

• As more folks with six-figure salaries find they can’t afford to buy a home, the traditional ticket to the middle class (home appreciation) disappears and the wealth gap will only get larger. (WSJ)
• Healthcare costs: NPR ran an informative story about the role “non-profit” hospitals play in driving up health care costs.
• Car ownership: Contrary to some expectations, urban migration and the rise of ride-hailing services has not really made a dent in car ownership. (Wired)

Taxes

• Data from last year’s tax receipts have generated lots of press this week as tax rates paid by the wealthiest fell below those of the average American worker. (WAPO)

Financial Scams

• Read about how a 27-year old built a company to take millions of dollars from unsuspecting baby boomers with his Facebook scam. (Buzzfeed)

Career

• The percentage of workers telecommuting rose over 400% from 1980 to 2017. This article examines the drivers and potential impacts of this increasing trend. (full disclosure, one of the authors was my star pre-algebra student when she was in sixth grade!) (St. Louis Fed)

Higher Education

• The number of post-secondary institutions has fallen to its lowest level in two decades. (Inside Higher Ed)

Bonus section:  The NYT Learning Section last weekend was devoted to Higher Ed.  Here are the four most relevant articles if you are interested in reading more.

• A discussion of programs that help low-income students navigate their way to/through college. (NYT Learning 1)
• College students give advice to high school students about what they wish they had known about both inside and outside the classroom. (NYT Learning 2)
• What colleges are doing to survive as the number of traditional college students shrinks and financial pressures mount. (NYT Learning 3)
• Many institutions are left with no choice but to merge. (NYT Learning 4)

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